I'm completely hopeless configuring my WiFi. Recently my network-manager stopped working when trying to connect to WiFi. It must have happened after some dist-upgrade. It connects to my preconfigured home WiFi but disconnects immediatly after starting a browser. My Fn key for WiFi stopped working as well.

I therefore decided to give ceni a try and uninstalled completely the network-manager.

However I am unable to configure it properly, although I read the manual thoroughly.

I have a home WiFi and wish to connect to it automatically and when I am connected via a cable I'd like to use it in preference. Also wish the pc connects to some other wifis I know.

I tried to edit the files accordingly with no success. I only managed to turn on my eth0.

###############################################################################
# Default behaviour is to associate with any open access point, further
# networks can be configured with wpa_cli/wpa_gui.
#
network={
key_mgmt=NONE
}

WPA_gui doesn't work at all. Neither does the Fn key for WiFi, but WiFi seems to be activated. My Home WiFi is WPA TKIP.

If there's no ethernet I would prefer the system doesn't try to connect at all, because it's useless.

As for wifi:

Code:

root@sidux-netbook:/home/petr# ifup wlan0
wpa_supplicant: wpa_action is managing ifup/ifdown state of wlan0
wpa_supplicant: execute `ifdown --force wlan0' to stop wpa_action
run-parts: /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/wpasupplicant exited with return code 1
Warning: mapping 'guest' to 'guest,sec=none'
mount error(101): Network is unreachable
Refer to the mount.cifs(8) manual page (e.g. man mount.cifs)
run-parts: /etc/network/if-up.d/wpasupplicant exited with return code 1
root@sidux-netbook:/home/petr# ifup wlan0
ifup: interface wlan0 already configured
root@sidux-netbook:/home/petr# ifup wlan0
ioctl[SIOCGIFFLAGS]: No such device
Could not get interface 'wlan0' flags
ioctl[SIOCSIWPMKSA]: No such device
ioctl[SIOCSIWMODE]: No such device
Could not configure driver to use managed mode
ioctl[SIOCGIWRANGE]: No such device
ioctl[SIOCGIWMODE]: No such device
ioctl[SIOCSIWAP]: No such device
ioctl[SIOCSIWESSID]: No such device
ioctl[SIOCGIFINDEX]: No such device
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: No such device
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODE]: No such device
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: No such device
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODE]: No such device
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: No such device
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODE]: No such device
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: No such device
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODE]: No such device
ioctl[SIOCGIWMODE]: No such device
ioctl[SIOCSIWAP]: No such device
ioctl[SIOCSIWESSID]: No such device
ioctl[SIOCGIFFLAGS]: No such device
wpa_supplicant: /sbin/wpa_supplicant daemon failed to start
run-parts: /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/wpasupplicant exited with return code 1
Warning: mapping 'guest' to 'guest,sec=none'
mount error(101): Network is unreachable
Refer to the mount.cifs(8) manual page (e.g. man mount.cifs)
Failed to connect to wpa_supplicant - wpa_ctrl_open: No such file or directory
wpa_supplicant: /sbin/wpa_cli daemon failed to start
run-parts: /etc/network/if-up.d/wpasupplicant exited with return code 1
root@sidux-netbook:/home/petr#

1. Put "auto" away in front of eth0
2. what does the root command "ifconfig" say?
3. what does the root command "iwconfig" say?
4. Is all the required firmware installed?
5. Is wpasupplicant installed?
6. Have you played around what we should know?

6. I think I have mentioned everything. As I said. I've been using the network-manager but one day (probably after a dist-upgrade, which I am doing correctly in init 3) my connection to my home wifi stopped working - meaning that it connected succesfully and then immediatelly disconnected. Moreover, the Fn + wifi works but the led is always on (strange).

hubi

Post subject:Posted: 07.11.2010, 22:44

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Joined: 2010-09-11
Posts: 228
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pumrel wrote:

Done. Seems to have solved the problem during booting.

Great! I forgot to mention you have to restart networking or simply to reboot.

The aptosid manual recommends ceni for network configuration.
I'd never heard of it prior to sidux/aptosid, but I've used it many times since: it's good. It is not a network manager as such (it doesn't constantly run as a process), more a configuration tool.

Great! I forgot to mention you have to restart networking or simply to reboot.

Have fun!

hubi

Well, it only have solved the issue with ethernet delaying the booting. The wifi is still disfunctional
I wouldn't like to reinstall the whole system, however if there is a possibility to reinstall all the packages concerning networking I'm willing to do that, but apart of ceni, wpasupplicant a my wifi firmware I don't know of any

hubi

Post subject:Posted: 08.11.2010, 13:06

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Posts: 228
Location: Vienna (AT)
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There is no need for reinstalling the system. If you are not sure if everything is installed you can reinstall with:

Code:

apt-get update && apt-get install --reinstall wpasupplicant wpagui

But I am a bit puzzled now why you cannot connect. I am quite sure your interfaces and wpa_roam.conf are fine now. You might check for typos.

You can also check if you as user are member of the group "netdev". You can see that in the output of

Code:

groups

A totally different option would be (as your firmware is installed) trying the WICD daemon for connecting to wireless networks. But I am not an expert with this method, but quite a few users really like that way:

I recommend wicd to anyone who is having trouble getting ceni to satisfy their needs. I use it myself on 4 different portable boxes.

After installing wicd, you will be asked to add to add your user to the networking group for wicd. It is suggested that you do that so that you can chose different wifi networks without having to su to root and restart the wicd daemon every time.

Also, because wicd runs as a daemon you need to reboot after it is installed and you need to make sure that no other network manager is running.
--
Neal

Well, wicd looks very neat indeed, but I still have the same problem.
Wicd gets me connected but the connection is suddenly lost That's exactly what happened with network-manager.
Same can be confirmed with the command "wpa_cli status" which sometimes shows everything including an IP address and when executed once agait shows status: CONNECTING.

I suspect the ralink firmware :-/ There must have been a change to the package but I don't know how to confirm it.

_________________Petr

muchan

Post subject:Posted: 08.11.2010, 23:17

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Joined: 2010-09-11
Posts: 469

you wrote "gets me connected but the connection is suddenly lost" many times.
can you describe exactly how you see it connected, and how you see it suddenly disconnected?
and also, output of ifconfig when "connected" and after "disconnected"?

dpt

Post subject:Posted: 09.11.2010, 18:31

Joined: 2010-09-11
Posts: 281
Location: New Delhi
Status: Offline

I have been getting these 'connecting....'messages for months now.
But no browsing or download problem

_________________In a lunatic asylum, everyone thinks that he is the doctor.